Gratispool was
arguably the first, and certainly the most famous, of the UK
photographic film processing companies that dealt directly with
the public via mail order. In various guises they operated from
the early 1930s through to the early 1980s, whereafter the company
was sold to a succession of new owners over the next 20years,
during which time the Gratispool brand name disappeared. Increasing
competition from High Street colour printing facilities, and
ultimately the digital era, lead to the demise of what had once
been a substantial international organisation.I must thank Farquhar McKenzie, a former Gratispool
emloyee, for providing much of the information on the post-1981
dissolution of the previous Gratispool 'empire'. The early history
of Gratispool, through to the 1970s, has come to me from Martin
and Richard Stead,
and Michael Adler and Suzanne Lipschitz (née Adler), all
being offspring of Gratispool's originators.

The following is an attempt
to record the history of Gratispool which, especially from the
end of the 2nd World War through to the 1960s, was used by a
whole generation of amateur photographers for whom home photography,
albeit only (at that time) in black & white, was at last
a realistic financial option. Gratispool offered noteable value
in not only supplying postcard sized enlargements as standard,
but also supplying a free film with each order.

Gratispool means literally
Free Film (roll films were called 'spools' at that
time), but the free film that first made Gratispool famous, was
a low cost paper based type, not celluloid based as sold by e.g.
Ilford and Kodak. This not only enabled Gratispool to operate
profitably despite 'giving away' a film with each returned set
of prints, but also 'locked' the customer into using Gratispool
for their future developing and printing (d&p) needs, since
the paper negatives from the 'free' film could only be printed
using special reflected light enlargers, not by 'contact' or
other conventional transmitted light printing procedures.

Early History of Gratispool
~ in Leeds, 1930s

The principle characters in
the formation and operation of the Gratispool company were Geoffrey
Stead, his wife Edrei Stead (née Francis) and Norman Adler.
Their children, Martin and Richard Stead, and Michael Adler and
Suzanne Lipschitz (née Adler) have provided invaluable
information on the early days of the company. As is often the
case with trying to record such history, however, these children
were not even born when the concept first originated, so the
early days of Gratispool are known only through a few company
records and anecdotal knowledge. The following tries to bring
all of this together into a coherent story, but inevitably contains
some speculation.

Geoffrey
William Stead and Edrei Francis were married in Bradford on 4th
March 1931. Geoffrey Stead had trained as a pharmacist in Bradford,
and Edrei had worked in Leeds as manageress of the Jerome photographic studio. On their wedding
certificate both have their professions recorded as 'photographers',
and Edreis father, Jack Francis, is also understood to
have been a photographer. Geoffrey's two younger brothers, Stanley
and Harry (maybe inspired by Geoffrey), both ran photographic
studios, Stanley at Kendal (in Cumbria) and Harry in prestigious
Bond St., London. The brothers were both competent photographers,
being particularly good at photographing children. Harry Stead
made a name for himself in London as a gifted child photographer
and had opportunity to photograph the Royal Family. In 1949, Harry
had "workrooms" overlooking "The Tea Kettle"
tea rooms in Highgate High Street, London N6 (Ref: AP. 7th June
1961), at the junction with Bisham Gardens.

The picture alongside was taken
by Harry Stead in 1947.

It is of a young Ernest Harris
who says (February 2015) "Thanks to your excellent site
I have been able to identify the 'Harry Stead' who took photos
of me as a child.
I knew the name because he signed one of the pictures. The date
would have been about 1947 when we lived in Highgate, which I
see was where he had his Studio.
My mother always said he was a 'Royal photographer', so it was
good to learn there was truth in that claim".

One of the two witnesses at
the wedding between Geoffrey Stead and Edrei Francis was Norman
Bernard Adler. This is an important fact, as it shows a close
early association between them at a time when few other facts
exist. Norman Adler is understood to have also had a knowledge
of photography and to have already (by then) studied the technology
during a visit to Kodak's Rochester Plant in New York.

Shortly after their marriage,
Geoffrey and Edrei (and possibly Norman) started Geoffrey's Studio,
in Boar Lane, Leeds. The Studio produced portraits for their
studio customers, with a 'side-line' of also accepting films
'over-the-counter' for developing & printing (d&p). Film
processing may have been Norman's input to the business, since
he is believed to have been a practical technologist while Geoffrey
and Edrei were more business minded. The synergism between them
all would have been a powerful combination in a business that
required both customer acumen and also a good grasp of the technical
process.

Since the Studio would have
supplied its finished portraits as postcard size prints (Edrei would
have been acquainted with this while working at Jerome Studios), a decision was made to print
all films to this size instead of printing Studio negatives to
postcard and d&p customer's films to small 'contact prints'. Thus, postcard sized prints
became standard for all their customers at no extra cost.

This move proved so popular
that the developing and printing of customer's own films outgrew
the Studio side of the business and was reborn as "The PC
(for Post Card) Developing and Printing Company", with G
W Stead, N B Adler and E Stead listed as directors, trading
from Low Hall Mills, Holbeck, Leeds 11. So Norman Adler is known
to have been a Director partner with Geoffrey & Edrei Stead.

The address of the PC company
can be clearly seen on this letter, where Norman Adler (his name
is central in the row of Directors' names below the company logo)
is apparently writing to himself at his home, at 2 Moor Allerton
Way, Leeds.

The reason for this letter
is probably that Norman was a keen philatelist and was sending
himself a first day 'cover' with an envelope bearing the 3-Kings
stamp (George V, Edward VIII and George VI) and / or
the stamp issued on 13th May celebrating the Coronation
of George VI on 12th May 1937.

Geoffrey Stead
as a young man

In an attempt to expand custom
for "The PC Developing and Printing Company", the Directors
tried offering d&p services to chemists shops (chemists were
synonymous with photography at that time, due to their involvement
with the supply and use of chemicals), only to find that many
refused, because they were concerned that once they started offering
postcard size prints to their customers, at the same price as
(smaller) contact prints, they would find it difficult to back-track
if the service proved unreliable. Its possible that they were
influenced to make this response by the Wholesale PhotoFinishers
Association (WPFA; see p5 of this link), who would have
wanted to discourage the competitive advantage of postcard sized
prints compared to the offerings of their own members, who supplied
contact prints as standard and charged extra for postcard enlargements.

As an alternative to trading
through the (reluctant) local chemists shops, it was decided
to approach newsagents, tobacconists and, most unconventional
of all, the many radio shops which were sprouting up all over
the place at that time. Since such traders had no prior involvement
with the photofinishing trade they were not influenced by the
attitude of the WPA and were happy to take on a sideline that
cost them no investment.

Anecdotally, an
incident when one of the radio shops went bankrupt, owing the
Steads and Norman Adler a substantial sum of money, prompted
the thought to return to trading directly with the public, rather
than awaiting payment via retailers. Geoffrey Stead, who is believed
was the 'business man', with Norman Adler being more practically
inclined, talked about getting his money 'up-front', by running
his business on 'Other People's Money (OPM, as he termed it).
So Geoffrey decided to try direct marketing via mail order, using
newspaper advertisements, a novel strategy at the time for the
photographic processing trade.

The
subsequent course of action which finally led to the formation
of the Gratispool company is uncertain. The print envelope shown
alongside dates to October 1935, showing how the name Gratispool
was in use by that time, and no doubt earlier.

Norman Adler is understood
to have visited South Africa during the early 1930s (maybe 1934)
where the word Gratis in Afrikaans is equivalent to "for free". It is
anecdotally thought, therefore, that he brought back with him
the idea for a free film service called Gratispool. However,
it is also possible that he just coined the name Gratispool,
with the business idea having already been mutually agreed with
his partners before his trip. By whatever route, the Gratispool
idea began (maybe experimentally at first) by advertising the
supply of a free (black & white) film with each returned
set of prints. Initially an order had to be for more than 1s/10d
(9p) to qualify = price of developing & printing an 8 exposure
film. This new service operated from the postal address of 37 Isles Lane, Leeds.
The Gratispool company was formally registered (incorporated)
in London on 30th August 1938.

When Gratispool was 'incorporated',
it took over, as a going concern, the business of the PC Developing
and Printing Company including all and any of the assets and
liabilities there, including all the rights and property in the
registered Trade Mark 'Gratispool'. The directors were listed
as Geoffrey Stead, Norman Adler and Edrei Stead. It had a registered
share capital of 15 thousand pounds with shares divided equally
between the three directors. The registered address of the company
was given as Bond Street Chambers, Tyrrel Street, Bradford.

Having
given away a free film, Gratispool ensured it was returned for
processing by using a low cost type which produced opaque paper
negatives rather than conventional transparent celluloid ones.

It is believed Gratispool purchased
their light sensitised 'fast' bromide paper negative 'film' material
from Criterion, a company based at the Arclight Works of E.N.Mason
& Sons, Ltd, Colchester (formed in 1905). At some later date, post-World
War II, it is understood to have come from Kodak. Later still,
around the mid-1960s, Gratispool black & white film became
a conventional celluloid type, printable by transmitted light.

The bulk sensitised paper was
made up into roll film 'spools', by hand. Although the 'spools'
could be developed by most anyone using normal film developer
etc. the resulting 'paper' negatives had to be printed by Gratispool's
own purpose designed reflected light enlargers (Richard Stead
recalls that his father's reflected light enlargers used 1000watt
bulbs).

Hence, because of the opaque
negatives, once you had taken pictures on a Gratispool 'free'
film, you became 'locked into' using Gratispool's services thereafter,
since (virtually) only they could print your negatives. Fortunately,
Gratispool gave a good service and a huge number of people were
happy using the 'paper based' free film, knowing they would receive
low cost postcard sized prints.

Gratispool worked successfully
from their Leeds premises for several years and the operation
grew to employ over 300 people. Meanwhile, Norman Adler married
Annette Isaacs in Sunderland in 1936 and they bought a house
in Moor Allerton Way, Leeds.

By the latter 1930s, it is
believed at least three companies were in existence, being Geoffery's
Modern Studios Ltd, The PC Developing and Printing Company and
also the fledgling Gratispool.

As the business grew it became
time to expand elsewhere. A survey of Gratispool's customers
showed a disproportionate number came from Glasgow, so it was
decided to open new premises in that city. These were found at
207 William Street, Glasgow, C3. Later it was discovered that
the customer sample was statistically 'skewed' because it was
taken during the Glasgow Fair Holiday (last two weeks in July).
However, it proved to be a good move since there was an abundant
supply of female labour in Glasgow ~ low cost in those days of
wage inequality. There was ready employment for men in the Clyde
shipyards, but such hard physical work was considered unsuited
to female labour. The opposite situation applied in Leeds, where
many women worked in the woollen mills and Gratispool had to
mainly employ men.

The picture alongside, courtesy
of Michael Adler and the records he found at Company House, is
the reverse side of a postcard photograph produced by Geoffrey's
Modern Studios Ltd, in 1941.Notice
that the original Geoffrey's Studio has flourished and three
further branches are now (in 1941) in existence, in Huddersfield,
York and (not unexpectedly) Glasgow.

War time would no doubt have
brought an additional demand for photographs, as husbands and
boyfriends went overseas in the Forces and left their wives and
sweethearts behind. A photograph to remind each of their loved
one would have created good trade for a photographic studio at
a time when it was still comparatively rare for 'ordinary' members
of the public to own a camera.

As a consequence
of their customer survey, the Stead family relocated to Glasgow,
leaving the Leeds premises in the hands of Norman Adler. The
date when the Stead family relocated to Glasgow is uncertain,
but it seemingly occurred prior to 1938. Norman's son Michael
was born in Leeds during March 1938, so one could speculate that
Michael's pending birth may have had some influence on Norman
and his wife being happy to stay behind in Leeds. Norman continued
to run the Leeds based businesses for a further 10 years or so,
in conjunction with his factory manager Ernest Carlson. Unfortunately,
towards the end of the 1940s a fire destroyed their major site
at Low Hall Mills, during winter maintenance work.

These print envelopes
confirm the date of the Leeds fire which led to the closure of
the Gratispool premises. The green & orange print envelopes
are dated 18th Dec 1946 (green) and 10th Oct 1947 (orange) and
both have the two Gratispool addresses i.e. William St,
Glasgow C3 and Holbeck, Leeds 11. However, the blue envelope,
dated 15th June 1949, has just the William Street, Glasgow C3
address; the Leeds premises have ceased to exist. This confirms
Michael Adler's recollection of hearing the news of the fire
from his father in December 1947. Michael was then aged 9, at
school in Brighton.

Norman had not been in the
best of health for some time and the fire was 'the last straw'
which prompted him to emigrate, with his wife and children (daughter
Sue was born in 1942), to South Africa. Norman and his wife already
had an association with South Africa, having met on-board ship
during Norman's first trip to South Africa around 1934. His wife's
parents and her two brothers were already in South Africa, having
emigrated some years previous.

Norman and his family left
the UK in May 1948 and arrived in S.Africa on the 'Cape Town
Castle' on 10th June 1948.

Gratispool Africa (Proprietary) Limited ~ the Adler family.

The UK winter from late January to
mid March 1947 was very severe and may well have encouraged
Norman to seek a better climate for the sake of his health. Fortunately,
Norman's health recovered in South Africa, after a thyroid problem
was discovered which had been over-looked in the UK.

Before Norman emigrated to
South Africa he reached an amicable arrangement with the Steads,
who were by then expanding the Gratispool business within Glasgow,
such that Gratispool (within the UK) subsequently came under
sole ownership of the Steads.

On
his arrival in S.Africa, Norman set up Gratispool Africa (Proprietary)
Limited, which was incorporated according to the Companies Act
of South Africa on the thirtieth (30th) day of September 1948,
signed by the Registrar of Companies, Pretoria. This business
initially operated out of 48 Caledon Street, Cape Town.
Later it moved to Castle Street, Cape Town, where it thrived
until 1974. Apart from operating a
'paper film' based portrait studio business, Norman also offered
a mail order 'Free Film Services' developing & printing service.
This might explain the address of PO Box 6.877, Johannesburg,
being the return address for the SA Gratispool film shown
below, though Michael Adler and his sister Sue Lipschitz
have no knowledge of their father having Johannesbury business
connections.

The
photograph shown left is the Adler family in Cape Town in 1957;
Norman, Suzanne, Anita and Michael.

Referring to his father's business
at Caledon Street, Michael Adler recalls: "There were three
floors with the post being opened each morning (sacks of post
in large post office bags) on the ground floor and developing
on the top floor, with printing on the floor between. I remember
the huge developing tanks and the smell of the chemicals. The
opening of the post was most important. It came from all over
Africa and we used to keep the stamps" (this is further
evidence of Norman's interest in philately, see above, the '3-Kings'
stamp and 1st Day Cover).

"Supplies of materials
for films came from England so that a free (paper negative) film
could be returned for every one received. I remember the large
wooden printing machines and the powerful lights. Dad sent for
Ernest Carlson from England after a few years - he had been his
factory manager in England. At one stage there was a trolley
bus with Gratispool adverts. In the mid-1950s colour photography
started with special paper and many chemicals. It seemed very
complicated and in order to keep up, Dad sent me (Michael) to
Johannesburg in 1957 to study the process at the Kodak factory.
Before that, he used to very carefully colour some of the pictures
by hand and I still have his magnifying glass on my desk."

"The S.African Government
passed the Population Registration Act in 1950 and this
required that everyone had to be photographed for an identity
document. Dad was very busy at this time and I remember going
with him on some of his trips - to Robben Island, to Port Elizabeth
and to Riversdale. He had a lovely Leica camera. I went on the
back of a moped to Riversdale with a woman photographer who was
going to assist him."

"In the 1950s Norman went
into partnership with Mr Hutch, a German who lived in Bishopscourt.
The business was called Le Portrait and there was a Studio in
Queen Victoria Street."

Alongside is a photograph of
the Adler (and Lipschitz) family, in April 1973. Norman and his
wife Anita are in the centre, with Sue in the lower right.

Sue says "All three girls
are Michael's and all three boys are mine".

Michael is believed to have
been taking the photograph, as neither he, nor his wife Eve,
are included.

Gratispool
in Glasgow ~ the Stead family

Leaving Norman Adler and his
family in S.Africa, the story returns to the UK, where Geoffrey
& Edrei Stead, with their growing family, are now living
and working in Glasgow.

By 1938 the Gratispool name was gaining recognition
in Glasgow by virtue of the Steads taking advantage of the advertising
potential of the 1938 Empire Exhibition, Scotland (unofficially
known as the British Empire Exhibition, Glasgow). This exhibition
ran from May 3rd to October 24th 1938 at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow
and covered 175 acres. An advert (my thanks to Stuart Neville
for this Flickr link) tells how Gratispool had two kiosks at
this exhibition, Kiosk A & Kiosk B, where visitors could
leave their films for developing & printing. "Developing
6d (2.5p). Each print 2d (1p) (each print a GLOSSY POSTCARD)",
"... we will supply you with an ultra-rapid 8-exposure film
for further Exhibition photographs, free of charge." "Amateur
Photographers should read the correct exposure for all films
at the Gratispool Kiosks where constant readings on a photoelectric
meter will keep you right."

This photograph shows Geoffrey
Stead and his wife Edrei on the occasion of their Golden Wedding
anniversary in 1981 (they were married in March 1931).

Surrounding Geoffrey &
Edrei, from the left and in order of age from the youngest, are
Sylvia, Nigel, Richard, Martin and Peter (now deceased). They
all worked for Gratispool and its associated companies, though
Peter spent most of his life in South America in the meat business.

The developing & printing
(d&p) trade was sluggish during the war, but portrait studios
were very busy taking pictures of Servicemen in their uniforms;
also taking pictures of wives, families and sweethearts for the
servicemen to carry with them.

Geoffrey Stead purchased two
such studios in Glasgow and these employed some of his laboratory
staff at a time of low d&p demand. Some others of the staff
were kept busy at the newly occupied William Street premises
making siren suits (meaning overalls to be put on
over pyjamas in the event of sirens warning of the need to go
into air raid shelters), lampshades, ladies handbags etc until
the raw materials dried up.

There were also government
contracts; the Leeds premises (many years before the fire) made
uniforms, while at Glasgow they made gas mask cases, shirts &
pyjamas. An activity of national importance, but very specialised,
was the making of microfilms of files and important papers.

Geoffrey was able to further
diversify by returning to his pharmaceutical origins, manufacturing
Flouride toothpaste (he was ahead of his time in this and had
to put a warning on the tubes to say flourine was a poison) and
vitamin-enriched chocolate, which you could buy without a ration
book. He also sold aspirins and other pills under the trade name
Naxan, a name he was very proud to have invented because it read
the same backwards and forwards. A family joke was that it should
have been NoxoN, as that way it would have been the same upside
down as well! Geoffrey also purchased the City Steam Laundry
in Govan (Martin still has a big laundry basket from there) and
he dabbled, with his cousin Jack Ferrari, in surplus army goods.
There were so many company ventures at that time that, when Geoffrey
was away in the Army, Edrei used to say she was left with 14
businesses to run. Martin suspects there is some exaggeration
in this claim, but it shows the diversification Geoffrey Stead
established at a time when d&p was slack.

Shortly after the start
of WWII, Edrei was
looking after 6 children, 3 boys of her own, 1 girl refugee from
the Spanish Civil War and 2 evacuees. The evacuees eventually
returned to their homes, but with Geoffrey in the Army, the 2
elder Stead children and the Spanish girl (Felisa) went to boarding
school so that Edrei, albeit with Richard still only a toddler,
could have opportunity to manage the business. Felisa was a few
years older than the 2 elder Stead children and so also spent
time working in Geoffrey's studios in Glasgow. Its believed she
hand coloured some of the portraits.

The picture alongside has the
text "Glasgow Geoffreys" hand written directly onto
the mount below the picture (the area of writing has had its
contrast enhanced here to make it more legible). It is quite
possible this print came from one of Geoffrey Stead's portrait
studios in Glasgow.

David Muir, who sent me this
image, tells me the couple were married in South Africa in early
1944 but the lady is as known to have never been to Glasgow.
Hence, the writing on the mount of this print is something of
a mystery.

The author has suggested that
perhaps it was taken by Norman Adler in one of his South African
studios. Possibly he had to send it to Glasgow for processing.
Since Norman was also using Gratispool's paper based film, if
his printing equipment failed he could only have had prints made
by sending the negatives to Gratispool in Glasgow. Alternatively,
maybe he was overwhelmed with work and couldn't cope with all
his processing requirements and again needed to 'off-load' some
of the work to his ex-colleagues in Glasgow.

A group of Gratispool girls
holding batches of customer films ready for printing, at the
207 William Street, Glasgow, C.3 premises.

This picture appeared in the
Autumn 1951 edition of Gratispool's customer hand-out, 'Photo
News'. It was used to demonstrate the technique of 'Open-Flash'
photography, which enabled cameras not synchronised for flash
photography to still be used for indoor photography.

Gratispool explained:
"By this method, the camera (shutter) is set at 'T' (time
expossure)and usually the (camera) operator gets a helper to
(manually) fire the flashgun. The flash is held 6 to 8 feet
(1.75 to 2.5 m) from the group and is pointed
at the centre of the group. The camera operator says "Open,
Flash, Close". With the first word 'Open', the camera operator
presses the camera shutter release button to open the shutter.
On the word 'Flash', the flash operator fires the flash bulb.
On the word 'Close' the camera operator closes the shutter.

"The above method can
be adopted anywhere, indoors or out, when the light is poor."

By summer 1954 Gratispool were operating from both
their 207 William Street, Glasgow C3 premises and their new premises
at 12 St.Margaret's Place, Glasgow C1 (see pictures below).
Of the 2 print envelopes shown here, both date from June 1954.
The red envelope is from William St while the magenta envelope
is from St.Margaret's Place.

The William Street premises
were later demolished during construction of the M8 motorway
(1960s) and the Hilton hotel (1 William Street) now sits more
or less on the site occupied by Gratispool's William St. premises.The St Margarets Place building
has also since been demolished.

The
photograph to the left was taken by David Duncan during the 1970s.
It shows the Gratispool processing laboratory at 12, St Margaret's
Place, Glasgow. David Duncan (Assistant Production Manager in
1974) worked in the Gratispool laboratories from April 1968
to August 1981.

He tells me this building was
vacated in 1979 & film processing moved approximately 3 miles
west to Clydeholm Road in the Whiteinch area. The Clydeholm premises
were a former ship building works of 2 storeys and had a large
clear area that allowed easier supervision and better production
flow (rather than the labyrinth at St Margaret's Place).

Alan Frame tells me it was
"...just behind the Glasgow High Court with Paddys Market just behind their building".Today, the plot of land where
the Gratispool building once stood is just a small carpark.

To the extreme left hand edge
of David Duncan's picture can be seen a clock tower which I believe
is the Merchant's Steeple.

Also, see same in picture below.

A wonderful street view towards the
Gratispool building, Glasgow, looking up Greendyke Street. Taken
during the 1970s judging from the cars (notice the post-1971
Morris Marina 2-door Coupé turning left into Saltmarket).

Alongside is the St.Margaret's
Place building, but boarded up by the mid-1980s. Picture from
the same website as above, by 'Joe the Tug'.

A similar street view to the above
(albeit taken with a wider angle, shorter focal length, lens).

It was downloaded from Google
street view and must date to around 2010.

The Gratispool building has
gone and the space is now a small car park.

By 1960, Gratispool became involved with colour
photography, advertising a 'Colour Club' which specialised in
the supply and processing of Kodak Ektachrome film (E-2 process,
32ASA) transparency (reversal) films. Including a replacement
Ektachrome film, processing a 20 exposure 35mm cost 18/6d (92.5p)
or a 120/620/127 roll film cost 15/6d (77.5p). Since professional
processing carried out elsewhere might have cost 9/- (45p) and
the film would have been a further 14s/2d (71p) for a 20exp 35mm
or 10s/6d (52.5p) for a roll film, Gratispool's prices (with
their 'free' replacement film) were effectively an overall saving
of around 25%. (Kodak had first introduced 127 format Ektachrome
into the UK at the start of 1960).

Martin Stead recalls that organising
the processing of Ektachrome was his first real job with his
father's Gratispool company. Ektachrome processing was done by
hand, the films being hung on stainless steel hangers (frames)
in batches of around 15 to 20 and dipped consecutively into tanks
which were originally designed to contain battery cells on submarines.
(In their original use, such tanks provided an acid-proof enclosure
against undetected battery electrolyte leakage. Since electrolyte
is highly corrosive sulphuric acid, uncontained leakage could
seriously weaken the pressure hull of a submarine.) With Ektachrome
being a colour film it had to be processed in total darkness,
without the benefit of a safe-light. Since this precluded a visible
clock, the girls who did Ektachrome processing had to work all
day in the silent dark, except for Martin's recorded voice saying;
"Put the new frame in the first tank......now!" "Take
the frame from the fourth tank and put it in the next......now!"
ad infinitum. It took Martin several evenings at home to perfect
this, because there were maybe three or four frames going through
at any one time and the time in each tank was different. In order
to work to a single set of instructions, and depending upon how
many films were being processed, sometimes the recorded instruction
referred to moving a non-existent frame, but the girls understood
and it all worked fine.

Gratispool claimed their 'Colour
Club' made colour photography cheaper than b&w. To demonstrate
this they compared (AP magazine, 7th Dec 1960) a 120 roll film
camera taking 24 shots on a film priced at 3s/3d (16p), developing
cost 1s/6d (7.5p) and 6d (2.5p) per enprint, the total cost being
16s/9d (84p), or 8.5d (3.5p) per b&w enprint. The 'Club'
offered to process a similar roll film of colour transparencies
(including a replacement film) for 15s/6d (77.5p) or 7.75d per
transparency (just over 3p each). Of course, this was a bit of
a cheat, as the unusually large number of b&w prints per
film (24 on 120) substantially increased the total b&w cost,
while the cost of processing a transparency film is independent
of the number of pictures per film. So, if the camera took a
more conventional 12 pictures per 120 film, the b&w costs
would have been 10s/9d (54p), making each b&w print around
11d each (4.5p) while the transparencies would each have cost
1s/3½d (6.5p), 44% more expensive than b&w!

Plus, you still had the cost
of viewing your transparencies, compared to the convenience of
hand-held b&w enprints.

In Spring 1960, Gratispool
announced in their quarterly Photo News magazine (which had been
running since at least 1951), that henceforth they would be printing
12 on 120 square (black & white) negatives at KING SIZE
4"x4" rather than the previous 3½"x3½".
This was possibly to simply their print cost arrangements, since
previously rectangular negatives printed to postcard size were
charged at 6d each (2½p) whereas square prints were charged
at 5d (2.1p). With the move to King Size square prints, ALL prints
were then charged at 6d.

Developing costs (black &
white) increased for all film sizes to 1/6d (7.5p), a 6d increase.
But Gratispool still claimed a substantial saving over prices
elsewhere. An 8 exposure film processed by Gratispool to postcard
sized prints, including another film, cost 5/6d (27.5p), whereas
the 'current list price' was said to be 12/3d (61p), including
2/9d (14p) for a replacement roll film.

To download a full copy of
Photo News for Spring 1960, click here, or on the image left (2.1MB file size).
The back page describes 'Gratispool Wintertime Products'. Under
the heading 'Photography at Low Ebb in Winter' are described
Electric Blankets and 'Superb Model Yachts' for sale. This diversification,
enabling the staff to be retained on productive work when few
films were received for processing, was started during the early
1940s (see siren suits, above).

In 1961, the Gratispool Co. Ltd. acquired sole
rights for the supply and processing of Dynachrome colour transparency
film in the UK and rebranded it 'Gratispool'. The US Dynacolor
Corporation (Rochester, New York) first marketed Dynachrome,
(unusually, a non-substantive reversal film, as is Kodachrome)
in the USA from 1959 (previously the company had marketed a film
called Dynacolor from 1949). Dynachrome shared the same K11 Kodak
developing process as the early Kodachrome (Kodachrome II, introduced
in 1961 - but not easily available in the UK until 1962)
- used a new Kodak process called K12, which itself was replaced
by the K14
process in 1974. Martin recalls that the formulation for
the K11 process was given to Gratispool by Dynachrome, whose
founders had all worked previously for Kodak. He comments "Kodak
may not have been relaxed about it, but the anti-trust laws in
the US stopped them from doing anything about it. By that stage,
they might as well make some money and keep tabs on our progress
by selling us (and Dynacolor) the wherewithal to do it."

With Kodak moving over to the
K12 process, they may have felt they were not losing much if
others used the previous K11 process.

By
late spring 1962 Gratispool
were advertising their Gratispool (née Dynachrome) 8mm
colour cine film priced at 19/11d (near £1), which included
processing and another 'free' film. Although not stated in their
adverts it is understood the cine film was originally 10ASA and
stayed 10ASA until Gratispool 2 (II) was introduced in April
1964. There had always been a shop at the St Margaret's Place
processing laboratory, taking orders and also selling simple
cameras, so when their 8mm cine film went on sale, Gratispool
started to sell movie cameras and complete cine kits, to create
a market for the film. These sold amazingly well such that Gratispool
next opened a shop in Queen St, in the shopping area of Glasgow,
and considerably widened their range of equipment. The story
behind Gratispool's move into selling cine equipment can be read
in Bill Kerr's account
of working as the Scottish Regional Salesman for Mayfair Photographic
Suppliers (London) Ltd. during 1962-64.

The 32ASA Kodak Ektachrome
colour transparency film processing & mounting service had
increased slightly in cost (since 1960) to 18/9d (94p), including
another Ektachrome 20exp. 35mm film. The roll film price remained
at 15/6d = 77.5p.

Until 1963 Gratispool imported its US Dynachrome
film in 8mm cine size only and returned it to Dynacolor for processing.
However, from 1963 Gratispool also imported the film in bulk
rolls which could be cut and spooled into 35mm cassettes. From
this time Gratispool carried out their own processing of both
cine and 35mm films on machines purchased from Dynacolor. Certain
chemicals for the processing of (non-substantive) Dynachrome
were obtained from Kodak's Kirkby (Merseyside) chemicals manufacturing
factory and this continued until (at least) 1969.

From April 1963 Gratispool advertised their (née
Dynachrome) own-brand colour reversal film in 36 exposure 35mm
cassettes with transparencies returned in plastic mounts and
with a replacement film "all for 19s/11d" (near £1).
A first film was obtained by sending money in advance, but the
amount required for that first film seemed to vary during the
initial months. An advert in the April edition of 'Colour Photography'
says "Send 2/6d (12.5p) for your first Gratispool 35mm colour
film...", but the following month, the same advert is requesting
5/- (25p). Then, by September 1963, the price has risen to 10/-
(50p) for the first film !

For two years from April
1963 Gratispool supplied Dynachrome films, cine and still,
in special packing at process-paid prices, to Dixons Photographic
Ltd. Dixons retailed the films under its own brand name of 'Prinzcolor'
at process-paid prices which it was free to fix, and processing
was carried out by Gratispool. Although Dixons were the first
company to whom Gratispool packaged private label film, there
were others. Reader's Digest was one of the biggest. Martin Stead
recalls visiting their office to see if they had any good ideas
that could be copied in Gratispool's customer relations department.
All he can remember is that they had about a dozen secretaries
in the department and each had a four tier in-tray. Bottom was
for enquiries, up one for minor complaints, up two threatening
to sue, and on top threatening to write to the papers. They had
to always work from the top!

The Dynacolor Corporation was
acquired by 3M in 1963 and by 1965 Dynachrome was being imported
into the UK by 3M's British subsidiary (Minnesota Mining &
Manufacturing Co. Ltd.) who then supplied to other UK outlets
than Gratispool (Dixons ?, see para above). In 1966, 3M began
supplying Dynachrome to Gratispool, avoiding the need for Gratispool
to import it from the US. 3M also acquiring the Italian transparency
film manufacturer Ferrania in June 1964 and within a couple of
years Gratispool changed to supplying Ferrania film under the
'International' brand. Dynachrome remained available (in the
US) until 1970.

Ektachrome processing continued,
eventually as 64ASA (Kodak first introduced 35mm 64ASA Ektachrome
as Ektachrome X in late 1963, having been available in the new
126 Instamatic format since 1st May 1963). By spring 1966, Gratispool
were using Kodak's new E4 process for all Ektachrome processing,
though it's believed to have been in partial use before that
date. This was made possible by the installation "of
the latest, most advanced and expensive, REFREMA processing plant". The trade
name Refrema stands for REidl FRemkalde (developing) MAchines;
their first was build in 1948. In the 1960s Refrema was a manufacturer
of batch processing equipment - continuous processing appeared
later with 126 films being pre-spliced into batches of about
70 films (to match the length of colour paper roll). The practical
difference between E2 and E4 was that E2 required the film to
receive a second exposure to light during its processing. E4
processing avoided this by including chemical reversal (using
an additive to the colour developer called tertiary butylamine
borane). Eventually (maybe late 1977) E4 gave way to the current
E6 process, which retains chemical reversal but uses more environmentally
friendly chemistry.

Gratispool's prints from transparencies
cost 1/9d (9p) for the 3.5"x3.5" size or 2/- (10p)
for 5"x3.5". These were made using an internegative
process with subsequent printing onto conventional colour print
paper. There was a problem with the final image quality, because
of the two stage process. This service was discontinued after
two or three years, when Gratispool had established themselves
in colour negative film developing & printing. Later Kodak
introduced a reversal paper that allowed reversal printing direct
from the original slide, but quality control remained difficult.
('Ektachrome' Type 1993 in 1972 was replaced by the lower contrast
& faster Type 2203 in 1976; meanwhile -1974/75- Kodak Pathé
in France produced the even faster 'Ektachrome' 14RC paper, with
'Ektaprint' 14 chemicals, and made it available for amateur use).
Things improved during the latter 1970s (possibly assisted by
the introduction of Type 2203) when all of Gratispool's reversal
processing was carried out at the specialist (Fencolor) laboratory
in Cambridge.

Ron
Houslip (see photograph
below) became involved with Gratispool in 1963 at a time
when colour negative film was starting to make in-roads into
the b&w market. At that time, Ron was employed by a London
based advertising agency which organised some of Gratispool's
advertising. A few years later, after successfully demonstrating
a new method of interacting with potential customers, involving
distributed mailing envelopes, Ron joined Gratispool as the Managing
Director of a newly created subsidiary 'Free Film Service' (see below).

Martin Stead has commented
that "Ron made an enormous
impact on Gratispool's marketing, which he attacked with enthusiasm
and imagination, and without his contribution Gratispool might
never have grown as fast".

Some information relating to
Gratispool is contained on the Directfoto web site. Directfoto is a Guernsey
based technology retail shop, offering both digital and conventional
film processing. It is run by John Houslip, the son of Ron Houslip
(Ron Houslip died in early August 2008).

Ron Houslip wrote a two part
account of the story behind 'Gratispool' within the magazine
'Photographic Processor' (Part 1 is in the December 1979 issue,
pages 282 & 283). The following text in italics indicates
where I have extracted (and part edited) paragraphs from that
article.

Ron Houslip, Managing Director,
Free Film Service, Maidenhead, 1974

"The major
film at that time (1963)
was Kodacolor, so Gratispool made efforts to solicit colour negative
processing by advertisements
which offered a free replacement Kodacolor film with each set
of pictures.
Although successful, the scope of such an activity was necessarily
limited by the economic impracticality of offering a free Kodak
colour film as an advertising lead. The situation changed in
1965when 3M, who by this time
had taken over Ferranla (in 1964), made available a private label
colour negative film (NM64). A deal was struck with Nestlé
to offer a range of colour films free with Nescafé Instant
Coffee. The brand chosen for the films was named 'International',
and the range of free films on offer included 35mm & 8mm
reversal colour and colour negative. This was the first free
colour film premium offer made in the UK if not in the world.
Once again Gratispool set a pattern which many were to follow.
Incidentally, the processing laboratory registered for the Nescafé
film was 'International Color Laboratories Ltd.'
The Nestlé free film premium was soon followed by the
first-ever processing premium. Unilever's Tree-Top orange squash
was the vehicle and the offer was discounted processing of Kodacolor
film with a free Kodacolor film with the pictures".

Gratispool
1963 prices for Kodacolor d&p significantly under-cut
Kodak's own to the extent that the replacement film was effectively
'free' to customers of Gratispool's service.

In
April 1964, Gratispool
introduced their Gratispool 2 colour transparency film (also
referred to as Gratispool II, maybe initially as Type X, to correspond
with Kodak's use of the suffix 'X' on various of their films,
post-1963) "NOW arriving from the USA", an improved
version of the previous Dynachrome. It was rated at 25ASA instead
of the previous 10ASA. The name Gratispool II was posssibly inspired
by the earlier upgrading of Kodachrome to Kodachrome II (which
first arrived around 1962 in the UK). Whether Gratispool then
introduced the new K12 process (as used for Kodachrome II) is
unknown.

Gratispool
2 was available in 36exp. 35mm cassettes and 8mm 25ft length
double run movie film, the latter balanced either for outdoor
lighting or (as Type A, rated at 40ASA) for artificial lighting
indoors. Whichever film was required, you sent money to Gratispool
for your first film and then the subsequent processing cost of
19s/11d (near £1) also covered the cost of your next replacement
film. An advert in Amateur Photogapher (29th April 1964) makes
a 'half price' offer, whereby sending 10/- entitled you to two
35mm or two cine films, or one of each. Hence ".... only
7d (3p) per exposure". Whether 35mm slides continued to
be supplied in plastic mounts is not specified. I recollect receiving
Gratispool 2 slides in strong cardboard mounts, plain yellow
on the viewing side and white on the reverse (see alongside).

Having 72 half-frame transparencies
mounted rather than 36 full frame, was initially without extra
charge, but from Spring 1965 an extra charge was levied
of 5/- (25p) ref: note from G.W.Stead in Colour Photography magazine
for March-April 1965. [Half-frame photography, although not new (the
Korelle-K 'single frame' camera was on sale c1933), had a major
impact on the amateur photographic market from around 1960 with
the introduction of the Olympus Pen series of cameras. Although
originally thought to be the natural successor to the full frame
35mm design, the subsequent introduction of compact 35mm cameras,
made possible by using shorter focal length standard lenses and
integrated circuit electronics, largely eliminated, by the early
1970s, one of the major benefits of the half-frame design, its
pocketability. Ironically, Olympus themselves set this trend
with their ubiquitous 'Trip 35' camera, from 1966, popularised
via the famous David Bailey TV adverts in 1977. But Olympus continued
to sell half frame cameras for some years thereafter. They introduced
the Pen EF, a fully auto design with built in flash, in November
1981.]

3rd June 1964 edition of Amateur Photographer shows
possibly the start of Gratispool's move into selling photographic
equipment, instead of just film rocessing. There is an advertisement
(p123) for the Maximus 8mm IIIE compact, auto-control, direct
viewing zoom movie camera at £49.19s.6d or, as a complete
kit, including a "super, reliable, quiet running projector,
30insx40ins glass beaded tripod mounted roll-up screen, film
splicer, holdall, comedy film and two Gratispoool colour movie
films, all for £50guineas (£50.50s = £52.10s
= £52.50p). In the 2nd September issue, Gratispool are
advertising another cine camera "Unsaleable at £60,
the world's best buy at £12.19s.6d". This is the Pentaka
8B from Carl Zeiss Jena, Dresden. Clockwork driven, with
fixed Zeiss Biotar f2 lens, this camera dates from 1960 and was
presumably being sold off by Jena as surplus stock."

Around
1965 Gratispool's paper
based black & white (b&w) film became a conventional
celluloid base 100ASA (125ASA by maybe 1968) panchromatic film
"made especially for Gratispool by a famous manufacturer"
(possibly by Ferrania - unconfirmed, though I have received information
that it seems to share the characteristics of Ferrania Panchro
P30). Resulting b&w enprints cost around ¼ the cost
of Kodacolor colour enprints. Black & white processing still
included a 'free' Gratispool replacement film, regardless of
what film was sent for processing (as occurred from the earliest
Gratispool days). Gratispool's own b&w film could be purchased
in advance "...at a special low price" of 2s/6d (12.5p)
for a roll film or 5s (25p) for a 36exposure 35mm.

During 1965 the cost of processing 36 exposure
35mm Gratispool 2 transparency film rose from 19s/11d to 24s/11d.
Gratispool 8mm cine
film processing cost also rose, but only to 21s (55p). In both
cases, first films cost 10s (50p) each. Each 35mm transparency
cost a "...little over 8d (3.3p) each" (instead of
the previous 7p). Gratispool claimed this compared favourably
to 1/- (12.5p) elsewhere.

Alongside is the 35mm transparency
mount (probably cardboard) used at this time by Gratispool for
their own brand film and also for returning Kodak 64ASA Ektachrome
transparencies. Below is the Gratispool 2, 25ASA, film carton
and cassette

A 36exposure 35mm Ektachrome
film, including processing, cost 28s/6d (£1.42½p)
at this time, so 9½d each transparency (4p).

A picture of one of Gratispool's
production lines at St.Margaret's Place, Glasgow, spring 1965.

It appeared as an illustration
to an article called 'Quality with Quantity' within the magazine
Practical Photography, May 1965 issue.

The article compared home processing
with a commercial laboratory porocedure.

"In your darkroom
you spend all evening making a dozen perfect whole-plate prints,
or processing a single reversal colour film.
A processing laboratory, to which hundreds of thousands of photographers
entrust their exposed films every year without a second thought,
must process these films quickly and economically, but above
all, must guarantee top quality - every time."

In 1966 Gratispool ran full
page colour adverts for their processing services in Amateur
Photographer magazine Colour Numbers, 18th May and 20th July.
There was also a print reproduced in the 20th July edition from
a Gratispool slide, submited by G.W.Stead - presumably Geoffrey
Stead. In a separate advert within the 18th May issue, Gratispool
are vigorously extolling the virtues and cost saving potential
of their 8mm cine equipment; the Korka f1.8 fixed lens, fixed
focus, auto-exposure cine camera with Hanimex zoom projector
at 29guineas (£30.45p) or with the superior Starline Luch
zoom lens projector (forward, reverse and still picture) at 35guineas
(£36.75p).

~ 1967

By January
1967 (AP magazine 4th
January) a Gratispool advert shows that, apart from the St.Maragret's
Place and 66 Queen Street stores (Glasgow) there were Gratispool
photo' equipment Centres at 67 High St, Paisley and 10 Martineau
Way, Birmingham. These Photocentres later increased to include
Leeds (38 Lands Lane), Edinburgh (65 Home Street),
Maidenhead (82 King Street) and Reading (27 Queen Victoria
Street).

Malcolm Drew worked at the
Gratispool shop at 10 Martineau Way, Birmingham, for a short
time in 1967. He took a series of photographs on 1st April 1967
using a Nikon Photomic loaded with Ilford HP4 film. He has montaged
these still pictures of the shop and its staff, together with
a short length of video (taken around the same time), and this
is viewable on YouTube using this
link.

May 1967 'Photography' magazine, describing the International
Photo-Cine Fair held in the National Hall, Olympia, 15th to 20th
May, reported that Gratispool can no longer be associated exclusively
with economical film supply and processing. "They have carried
their theme to kits of equipment, still and cine" (though
already sold by mail order since mid-1964, see previous).

In the 7th June 1967 edition
of AP (p101) there is a Gratispool Photocentre advert advertising
Minolta cameras with the enticement "We know that Minolta
cameras are great. But do you know that if you buy one at Gratispool
you can win a car.....WIN AN IMP...or anyone of 83 fantastic
prizes plus a big bonus of 100gallons of Fina petrol". The
IMP was the Hillman Imp.

At this time, the cost of a
35mm 36exposure 'Gratispool 2' transparency film, including processing,
had reduced to 21/- (£1.05p) with 8mm cine back to the
1964 cost of 19s/11d (near £1). The marketing had also
changed. Gratispool now claimed their colour film to be 'Free',
by virtue of supplying a 10/- (50p) refund voucher when a customers
sent 10/- for their first film (still or cine). Thus, the customer's
total outlay for a set of 35mm colour slides, including a replacement
film, was 21/-, even if they had never used the service previously.
This colourful advert
contains the details.

RHS (above) is a school photo
frame with the Gratispool name; found here.The Gratispool International
Schools Div'n was started in 1966 by Nigel Stead.
It visited schools 'from John O'Groats to Cardiff.' The story
of how the Schools Division went from photographing 4,000 children
in 1966 to 500,000 in 1974 is told in Issue 4, of 'interVIEW',
The Journal of the Gratispool Group, started in 1973-74.

In September 1967, another approach to capturing the
colour negative film processing market was organised by Ron Houslip when he arranged the
trial distribution of 'mailing envelopes' for people to send
in their colour print films for processing, with a 'free' Kodacolor
film supplied with the prints. This idea stemmed from a sample
envelope Martin brought back from a business trip to the States;
the envelope was also the advertising medium. The approach had
the advantage of not requiring a premium brand film to be offered
'up front'; only after a customer had committed to using the
processing service. Since this marketing approach was different
to previous, and the Steads were not certain whether it would
be successful, they used an anonymous company name, 'Free Film Service' (FFS).

Some 100,000 colour print mailing
envelopes were distributed which encouraged users to return their
films to FFS at Maidenhead. All films were sent to Gratispool
at Glasgow for processing. The response was so overwhelming that
Ron Houslip left his previously held position with the London
advertising agency to become Managing Director and minority shareholder
(20%) with Martin & Richard Stead in the FFS company.

1n 1968, Gratispool 2 was available in two
new formats, apart from 35mm (36exp) and 8mm cine. A summer time
advert in Amateur Photographer (June 26th) shows the film was
then also available in 20 exposure Instamatic 126 catridges as well
as Super
8 cine. As in 1967, a potential customer sent 10/- (50p)
to cover the cost of whichever film format he required and this
was supplied with a voucher giving 10/- off the subsequent processing,
plus a new film. All-in costs (film + processing) were 24s/9d
(£1.39p) for 36exp 35mm transparencies (now mounted in
'easy to project PLASTIC mounts'), 18s/9d (94p) for 20exp 126
transparencies (also returned in plastic mounts), 22s/9d (£1.14p)
for Standard 8mm cine processing and 25s/9d (£1.29p) for
Super 8mm cine film processing.

Pictures by Gordon Malthouse,
writing an article called 'Factory Fresh Thoughts'.
He visited Gratispool at Glasgow in mid-1968 and reported there
was 50,000 square feet (4,645 square metres) of factory space
(presumably combined area over the 4 floors) crammed with
the latest electronic machinery, and a staff of over 450.

The author reported
trying the new 64ASA Gratispool colour film, recently introduced
in 126 cartridges, and found it very much to his taste. "The
dull, leaden conditions gave the frames an overall blue cast,
as they would with any colour stock, and they stand comparison
well with any colour stock. The tendency to slight saturation
gives a richness which many people like, and the processing is
clean."

Gratispool's Kodacolor processing
service had been available since summer 1963, inspired by Ron
Houslip. It operated in a similar way to their b&w service.
Customers were requested to send in their previously purchased
(elsewhere) Kodacolor
negative film for processing, or alternatively Gratispool would
sell customers a Kodacolor film in advance at a discount price,
8/6d (42.5p) for roll film and 10s/6d (52.5p) for 20 exposure
35mm. Either way, the subsequernt processing costs (8exp 22/6d
- £1.13p; 20exp 48/6d - £2.43p) included a replacement
Kodacolor. By 1965 Gratispool offered a replacement Kodacolor-X
film with the processed results from ANY make of colour negative
film sent in.

The Kodacolor CX 120 80ASA
film shown left is believed to date to 1968. It has a
label extending over the carton ends advising "This film
was supplied by Gratispool, Glasgow, C1. Please make sure this
film is correct in size and type BEFORE opening the carton.
Films in broken cartons cannot be accepted for exchange".

The 120 panchromatic b&w roll film
carton shown above presumably dates
from maybe 1968, as the film inside the carton had the
later (new improved) 125ASA speed rating, rather than the original
100ASA. The same carton contained the mailing envelope shown
alongside.

Martin Stead has advised me
of the reason for the unusual Gratispool address. "As b&w
business diminished there was quite a bit of consolidation in
the processing trade and many photofinishers subcontracted their
b&w work, which gave a worthwhile volume to those who continued
to do it. In the case of Gratispool an arrangement was made with
Charles Plant, who had a lab' in Chester called NAP (Northern
Associated Photofinishers, I think). In those days traditional
photofinishers were a bit shy about being associated with those
who undercut others by giving away films (as Gratispool), so
NAP suggested Altrincham as a (clandestine) address, as they
collected from there anyway. By this time, with the growing importance
to their business of colour photography, Gratispool realised
they didn't need to bother any longer having a (paper based)
b&w film that no one else could handle. In any case, no one
was prepared to carry on making decreasing quantities of paper-based
film".

"The relationship with NAP only lasted two or three years,
as Gratispool later acquired Fencolour, a lab' in Cambridge that
was already doing the b&w film processsing for Gratispool's
1971 subsidiary 'Free Film Service' (FFS) in Maidenhead, and
it was all sent there". A b&w 127 size FFS roll film
is shown lower down this page.

A 1969 Gratispool price list leaflet, showing the supply
of either Gratispool or Kodak films, depending upon customer
choice. Film types cover black & white (Gratispool only),
or Kodak Kodacolor for prints, and Gratispool or Kodak Ektachrome
for slides.

"All prices shown include
the price of a new film with the results, of the same type and
size." (.....as sent for processsing).

Half-frame slides (72 per 36
exposure 35mm film) returned in cardboard mounts, still required
an additional levy of 5/- (25p), as was introduced in 1965.

Only Gratispool was on offer
for cine film, both Standard 8mm (referred to as Double 8) and
the newer format, Super 8mm.

Extra prints and enlargements
from previously processed films (black & white or colour)
and prints from (colour) slides, were other services on offer.

You could also have transparencies
copied, at 2s/3d each (11p), or 1s/9d each (9p) for 25 or more
from the same slide.

In
1970 the Finglas laboratory
opened in Ireland, located in the city of Dublin. It was a major
expansion for Gratispool which took advantage of greatly reduced
corporation tax offered by the Irish government, phased out over
the next 15 years. It became one of the largest laboratories
for processing 35mm film and the new (in May 1963) 126 film cartridge
(same film width as 35mm) announced by Kodak for their Instamatic
camera range; many film and camera manufacturers subsequently
adopted the 126 format. The laboratory incorporated a very efficient
and productive layout (conceived by Martin Stead and implemented
by Alex Smith and Tom Madden, peviously Head Chemist) and used
mostly US manufactured equipment to produce millions of colour
prints. Geoffrey and Edrei moved to Dublin at this time, purchased
accommodation and became personally involved in the commissioning
of the new laboratory and its subsequent operation.

By 1971over 60 million Free Film Service (FFS)
envelopes were distributed in the UK during a single photographic
season - all promoting the idea of taking pictures on Kodacolor
film but then encouraging the film to be sent to FFS for processing
by the offer of a 'free' replacement Kodacolor film with the
processed prints. To put the matter in context, 60 million envelopes
distributed meant an investment of well over a quarter million
pounds. The earlier FFS envelopes had a picture of Ron Houslip
on them, it being Ron who started the FFS venture in September
1967 (see above).

Some items of
FFS literature (left and above) found on this web page. Notice that on the yellow
FFS 'Guide to Better Pictures', another name, Speedisnaps Ltd
is mentioned - maybe a forerunner to SupaSnapS ? (see below).

Below is a Free
Film Service envelope scan sent to me by Ian Busby. It dates
to 1977, which Ian knows is true as it contained prints returned
from films he exposed at the 1977 Silver Jubilee Fleet Review (28th June
1977). Further fascinating insight is that Ian knows the young
girl pictured on the envelope is Mandy Houslip, daughter of Ron
Houslip and his wife Jean. Ian recalls how Ron & Jean started
the Free Film Service from their home "just down the road
from us. The kids would often stay with us when their parents
were busy".

In a subsequent
re-organisation of Gratispool (to Gratispool International Holdings),
FFS merged with Gratispool and shares in FFS were exchanged for
10% of Gratispool Group shares and Ron Houslip then became Gratispool's
Marketing Director. Richard Stead, who had previously held that
post, went abroad to set up and supervise three companies: in
Holland (managed by Mr Van Haeften from 1968), Belgium and France.
They collected films by mail order which were flown to Gratispool
labs in the UK (though Gratispool eventually acquired a laboratory
in Holland, at Zootermeer, called 'Sanders Laboratorium') and
Ireland (Finglas, from 1970, see above).

Left is a 127 sized black &
white (b&w) panchromatic film in a Free Film Service, Maidenhead,
carton (looking very much like a Kodak Kodacolor carton). This
confirms that FFS were also returning 'own brand' b&w films
to any customers sending in their b&w films for processing.

Processing of b&w films
was likely being carried out either by NAP at Chester (see the
yellow Altrincham address envelope above) or (later) by the Fencolor
lab' in Cambridge.

Right is a 126 cartridge black
& white panchromatic film in a 'Free Film Service' carton.
The film has an ASA (ISO) speed of 125. The expiry date is April
1975, so likely manufactured around 1972. The small document
accompanying the film mentions Free Film Service (UK) Ltd laboratories
in London (probably Cambridge), Glasgow C1, Amsterdam, Brussels
and Paris (see paragraph above), concerning Richard Stead)

Also during
1971, Gratispool acquired
Colour Print Express Ltd. (CPE) that had attempted to follow
down the Free Film Service road. CPE was immediately organised
to be a market competitor for Free Film Service. Two new concepts
were introduced. First, daringly, costs were invoiced when the
processed film was returned - for the first time ever either
here or in the USA. Further, in addition to national door-to-door
distribution, an envelope was included with 'Woman's Own' magazine.
Both of these operations were destined to set national trends.

Gratispool
~ SupaSnapS

During the 1970s (post-1975)
Ron Houslip, while on the Gratispool board in his capacity as
Sales Director of the merged company ~ Gratispool International
Holdings ~ pushed for the creation of what became a successful
chain of small shops called 'SupaSnapS'. These outlets
were rapidly set up (the aim was 12 stores a month) to compete
with the mini-labs which were springing up in most all town centres,
though SupaSnapS did not operate minilabs. Although Martin half
expected that one day it might become necessary to convert them
to proper mini-labs to compete on service times, Gratispool managed
to set up an efficient collection & processing service using
satellite laboratories to carry out the actual d&p work,
and turnaround time was kept down to two nights. This enabled
SupaSnapS to offer colour prints at half the price mini-labs
were charging, albeit the minilabs could offer a turnaround of
only a few hours. But the lower cost of SupaSnapS seemed to better
satisfy their customers. Over the weekend, when fewer films were
handed in for processing (it was Sunday closing in those days),
the laboratories were kept in operation printing films received
from mailing envelopes.

In 1977, Martin Stead, the last of the 'Stead
family' to be Managing Director & Chairman of Gratispool,
resigned his position, but remained as a non-executive director
and was closely involved with his successors Paul Malton, who
became Managing Director having been Financial Director for some
years, and Ron Houslip, who became
Chairman.

Agfa had played a significant
part in the growth of Gratispool because the new laboratories
and equipment needed significant capital investment (splicers,
film processors, notchers, printers, paper processors and print
finishing equipment) all of which Agfa supplied via a "bundled
paper contract" where the printing materials included a
price element that covered the equipment costs. When Gratispool
was put up to be sold, there was competition between Agfa and
3M (Agfa had invested equipment and risked losing their paper
sales whereas 3M risked the loss of significant film sales).
3M offered more and Agfa could not quickly respond because of
the instability in the silver market at the time (a rapid increase
in the price of silver during 1978-1980 was followed by a reduction
involving 3 years of wide price fluctuations).

In 1981, the Gratispool company was sold to
3M's Photographic Division, the date presumably reflecting the
year of Geoffrey & Edrei Stead's 50th wedding anniversary.
3M continued to use the company name Gratispool International
Holdings Ltd, but only kept the organisation until the end
of October 1986 before selling off the various parts of the
business. 3M attempted to operate the Finglas laboratory (Dublin)
for a while but eventually shut it down. Mail-orders were then
transferred to the Glasgow laboratory at Clydeholm Road.

Similarly, 3M found they were
not able to achieve satisfactory margins with the SupaSnapS chain,
despite new initiatives like offering 5"x7" prints
at a price which undercut competitors and trials of a next day
d&p service (their '27-shop test' started late summer 1986).

Operating margins were low
and many SupaSnapS stores were unprofitable; the competing mini-labs
were taking an increasing market share, being able, by then,
to offer a 1-hour service. The price premium on a mini-lab service
compared to SupaSnapS was less a disincentive to customers who
were more affluent by the mid-1980s compared to 10 years previous.
Mini-labs gave the further advantage that customers did not need
to worry about commiting their precious film memories to the
post, a factor which meant a substantial part of the photofinishing
market moved from mail order to High St retail. 3M did not want
to make further capital investment (even mini-labs were hardly
profitable) and exited the activity, having first closed (post-1984)
the laboratories in Blackpool (serving 114 SupaSnapS shops) and
Cambridge (the Fencolor Laboratory Ltd, Coldhams Road).

The remnant Gratispool businesses,
being the SupaSnapS stores and the laboratories in Glasgow, Reading
and Northampton, were sold to Dixons Colour Laboratories who
(possibly as part of the deal) continued to buy SupaSnapS branded
film from 3M.

SupaSnapS promotional badge.

The pictures below
show various SupaSnapS promotional cameras, taking 126 or 110
cartridges. With the cameras shown, the film cartridge does not
fit entirely within the camera body; only sufficient is covered
to form a light seal around the film gate aperture of the cartridge.
Their open frame viewfinders fold flat when not in use.These & similar cameras can
be seen at this web site. Their design is attributed
to The Arts Institute
At Bournemouth, with dates from the 1980s to c1990.

Evidently the same
plastic cameras as used by SupaSnapS were also used in other
promotions. Here is one labelled 'Hanimex MICRO 110'. Hanimex
was an Australian company marketing mainly budget priced photographic
items. Thanks to the Marriott
World website
for the information that the name Hanimex was derived
from HANnes IMport EXport, with the Hannes part derived from
the name of its founder, Jack Hannes, who started importing European
cameras into Australia after 1945. By the 1950s, budget cameras
and photographic accessories bearing the Hanimex name started
appearing in the UK. Jack Hannes died while skiing in Switzerland,
31st January 2005.

Below are two more SupaSnaps
promotional cameras, both taking 126 'Instamatic' cartridges.
The yellow camera completely encloses the film cartridge (as
is conventional) but the white camera (shown with its open-frame
viewfinder folded down) only partly encloses the cartridge (as
explained above). On the back of the yellow camera it says "Only
use Snappit film in this camera. Return your film to SupaSnapS
for best results. Hold the camera very still. Use in bright sunshine."

These simple cameras were sometimes
given away when you took a film in for processing, as you can
see in the 1991 YouTube video below. To see it in this web
page, click on the white arrow at the centre of the image.

A SKALECTRIC Ford Escort XR3i
rally car model, probably dating from the mid or late 1980s.

A SupaSnaps 200ASA
(ISO) colour film in the 126 fim cartridge format.
This 'new improved' quality film dates to around 1995 (develop
before January 1998)

Below, a SupaSnapS promotional
'cool bag' bearing the logo 'Fast or Free'. This
relates to a SupaSnapS TV advertising campaign from the 1980s
which promoted the SupaSnaps jingle:

"They're
back when we say, or you don't pay, - that's the promise we keep
at Supasnaps!".Click
here to see a short
video of that advert, courtesy of Andy Ensor.
This video is in wmv format which will run in either Windows
Media Player or Real
Playerand doubtless various other players freely available on the
Internet.

The 'cool bag' measures some 300mm
long, by 200mm wide by 160mm deep.

This example has survived well
but the handles are starting to pull away from the plastic body.

Dixons sold the Gratispool
laboratories in a Management Buy-Out (MBO) but retained the SupaSnapS
stores. Subsequently Dixons sold SupaSnaps to Sketchley (part
of Johnsons Cleaners UK Ltd) who took some advantage that the
dry cleaning season tends to be the opposite of the amateur photography
market.

In mid-1998, the Sketchley
/ SupaSnapS business was sold to the Swiss-owned Minit Group
(founded
in Belgium in 1957), for £1.23 million. Minit, best
known (at the time) for key cutting and shoe repairs, said they
would retain the SupaSnapS brand and offer a 'services supermarket'
from shoe and watch repairs to dry cleaning and film processing,
all under one roof. In July 1999, Amateur Photographer magazine
tested the quality of colour film developing & printing via
various sources, and included a High Street SupaSnaps store.
AP judged their results (on that occasion) to be very poor, in
contrast to a previous survey, May the same year, when SupaSnaps
had performed much better.

An internet search (early 2007)
suggested some SupaSnaps stores might (then) still exist, with
a few still operating out of Sketchley shops. Mister Minit shops
still exist (2016), offering many, and more, of the services
predicted in 1998, though not dry cleaning. And their photo'
trade seemingly consists of providing small ID photos for e.g.
passports and driving licences.

Andy Ensor, who worked for
SupaSnapS at Martineau Way, Birmingham from 1985 through to 2000
and experienced the 3M, Dixons and Sketchley years, told me that
the SupaSnapS working environment was a very happy one, though
it became progressively less so as the years went by, the ownership
changed and the business shrank into just Sketchleys. Below are
pictures of Martineau Way during the era when Sketchley owned
SupaSnapS. The right hand picture shows the shop staff with a
SupaSnapS marketing idea 'Snap Man'.

Andy started work in the processing
laboratory at Martineau Way, which at the time (1985) was HUGE.
This facility continued but eventually encompassed the new mini-lab
technology. Three mini-labs were installed, each one slightly
smaller in size than its predecessor, and each requiring less
and less technical knowledge. Finally the shop was demolished
to make way for a Sainsbury's supermarket.

The Gratispool laboratories,
which had been purchased from Dixons in a Management Buy-Out,
passed to Kodak but even they (c2002) decided to exit
from photoprocessing because of the effect digital was having
on their conventional film business. Kodak developed different
ways of selling film, paper and chemical products via contracts
including the supply of equipment and quality control to e.g.
film processing facilities within multi-product retail stores.
Their silver halide colour paper is also used in "digital
print processors" where customers insert memory cards etc,
select the required size and number of prints and then receive
'true' photographic prints with improved dye stability compared
in ink jet.

Much of the latter part of
this Gratispool story has come to me from Farquhar McKenzie,
a former SupaSnapS and Gratispool UK Director, who moved from
the Finglas Laboratories, Dublin, to International Photofinishers
at St Margarets Place, Glasgow, then to Dixons Photo at Stevenage
and thence to Kodak, at their Processing Laboratories at Hemel
Hempstead. Farquhar subsequently moved through the Eastman Kodak
organisation; its EAMER Photofinishing business took him into
Europe (and wider global responsibilities) and to some of the
Qualex managed laboratories in the US.

A number of ex-employees of
Gratispool naturally moved to careers with similar photoprocesssing
companies e.g Klick (still trading, Dec. 2006), Colorama
(still trading), BonusPrint (still trading), Truprint (still
trading) and Photo Trade Processing (PTP), which subsequently
became Dixons Photo Processing before they too exited the business.

By this dispersion of quality
photofinising operatives, Gratispool's legacy was to influence
most of the photo' processing businesses in the UK and these
ex-employees enjoy their affectionate title of the Gratispool
"Mafia". The Friends Reunited web site, with three Gratispool
contact groups, shows the enduring friendships created while
working for Gratispool.

During the many
e-mail exchanges between Martin & Richard Stead, Farquhar
McKenzie and myself, several topics were considered and discussed.
Clicking on this link
takes you to a page where some of those discussions are recorded.

Below are fond reminders of
Gratispool's print envelopes, their film carton
and other miscellany of Gratispool history.

A different coloured
print wallet was used for each day of the week in order to keep
an eye on the sequence of orders processed. During the early
days, when negatives came from quite primitive cameras and d&p
was largely a manual process relying upon experienced guesswork,
employees had to redo as many as 30% of their printed output
(from negatives that were printable at all), so there were frequent
rushes to get through all the day-before-yesterday's work. The
coloured wallets were invaluable to 'spot the laggards'.

The Gratispool
print envelope alongside dates from October 1935 and so connects
with the earliest times of the fledgling Gratispool company,
when their d&p premises were located in Holbeck, Leeds (37
Isles Lane, Leeds 11) rather than Glasgow. The family story related
by Martin & Richard Stead (see upper section of this page)
explains how this original location for Gratispool came about.

The red and blue envelopes
(below, left) date from June 1936 and August 1936 respectively.

The slogan is "Snap it
with a FREE FILM !" but the free film offer is qualified
inside the envelope where it states "A FREE FILM with every
order over 1/10d" (9p). Film developing cost 6d (2.5p) and
prints 2d (0.8p) each, so the order needed to be for at least
the d&p of an 8 exposure film.

The Gratispool Co. price list
alongside is believed to also date from around 1936. Notice films
are also referred to as 'spools', so film developing cost 6d
(2.5p) 'per spool'.

More print envelopes from 37 Isles
Lane, Leeds 11.

Reading from the extreme left:
July 1937,
June 1938,
Date unknown.

The date of this
envelope, bearing the 207 William Street, Glasgow C3 address,
is unknown, but the rear is marked to show film developing cost
6d (2.5p) and prints cost 2d (0.8p), exactly as the top envelope
dated 1935. Hence, the envelope is likely to date from the late
1930s, being the earliest days at William St. The slogan repeats
the above Leeds based envelopes, "Snap it with a free Film".

Print envelopes
from Dec 1946 and Oct 1947. These have both the original Holbeck,
Leeds address and the new William St, Glasgow adress, so date
to a time when Gratispool still retained both premises, before
the 1947/48 fire that destroyed the premises at Leeds (Isles
Lane). "Gratispool means Free Films"

Gratispool print envelope from
June 1949.

The address is Gratispool Co
Ltd, William Street, Glasgow C3. The slogan is now "Keeps
Your Camera Active."

This envelope is dated April
1953 and the address is still 207 William Street, Glasgow, C3.

It bears the slogan "Don't
Buy FILMS! Gratispool MEANS FREE FILMS".

The envelope no longer offers
a hand colouring service and also no longer qualifies the free
film offer as only applying to min. orders of 1s/10d (see above).

All the above print envelopes,
apart from the one dated 1953, offered coloured prints from black
& white negatives. This would have been a hand colouring
service, as described on my colour
printing page and illustrated here.
The price to produce a postcard sized hand coloured enlargement
is shown in the (1936 ?) price list (above) as 9d (3.75p), whereas
a black & white postcard print cost only 2d (0.8p).

The later envelopes say that
contact
prints can be undertaken in the winter period (November to
April inclusive) if desired. This offer continues throughout
(at least) the rest of the 1950s. Whether these 'contact' prints
were genuinely 'contact prints', or merely smaller, hence lower
cost, prints still made by reflection projection printing, is
uncertain. Pure contact printing would not be possible with opaque
paper negatives so it is assumed that the negatives were projection
printed in the same way Gratispool produced their postcard size
prints, but to a 1:1 image size that reduced printing paper costs
and so reduced the overall processing charge.

Print envelopes
from the time when Gratispool were transferring from their 207
William St. Glasgow C3 premises to 12 St.Margaret's Place Glasgow
C1. The extreme left hand envelope is from William St dated June
1954. The magenta envelope is St Margaret's Place, also June
1954, and the green is from St Margaret's Place, June 1955.

To the left is a small warning
slip enclosed with pictures within one of the above envelopes.

The 31°Scheiner film speed
(100ASA) was considered quite high speed in the 1950s and box
camera were pre-set by their makers to give rather more exposure
than necessary with 100ASA film if the light was very bright.
Even so, the advice to "only take distant views in dull
weather..." seems unnecessarily pessimistic and may have
contributed to failures, or at least dull and uninteresting pictures,
without the benefit of shadows being cast by clear sunlight.

Possibly Gratispool found it
difficult to print dense paper negatives by reflected light and
so the warning may have been as much to help Gratispool's printers
as it was to help the users of the film.

This print envelope (left) is from July 1957 and contains some
of my pictures from a holiday in Blackpool which demonstrate
the framing errors and camera shake I suffered with my first
camera, my VP Twin.

The address is the familiar
one of Gratispool, St. Margaret's Place, Glasgow C1 (see photograph
at the top of this web page).

The slogan is "Don't buy
Films ! Gratispool means FREE FILMS."

Developing and printing costs
are now 5/- for 8 an exposure film, 6/- for a 12 exposure film
and 9/- for a 16 exposure film (25p, 30p & 45p). These charges
can be interpreted as developing costing 1/- (5p) with postcard
size prints costing 6d each (2.5p) and 3½"x3½"
enlargements from square negatives costing 5d each (2p). Thus,
prices more than doubled over the 22 years from 1935.

Probably dating from around
1957 is this undated letter which was sent accompanying first
Free Films sent on request to would be users of the Gratispool
service. Directors of The Gratispool Co.Ltd. are named as G.W.Stead
and E.Stead.

To view the full letter and
its text, click here
or on the image left.

The Gratispool print envelope scans below were sent to me by
William Wilson. He has two blue envelopes. The one shown here
(ref: c252) is dated 24th July 1956 and another, looking much
the same (ref: c273), is dated 6th May 1960. The orange envelope
(ref: c628) is dated 8th January 1959.

The slogan is "Tell Your
Friends" - "The Best Developing & Printing Service
in the World"
The address is St. Margaret's Place  Glasgow  C.1

If e.g. there were any negatives
which were not suitable for printing, Gratispool enclosed a Credit
Note with your returned prints which could be used as part-payment
of the next d&p or reprint order. The one shown below left
is worth 9d (4p) and probably dates from 1957. Postcard size
enlargements (black & white of course) are priced at 6d (2.5p)
from any make of (rectangular) roll film negative. Square negatives
are printed to 3.5"x3.5" at 5d (2p) each.

The paragraph to the right
of the Developing and Printing Charges (5/-, 9/- and 6/-) reads
"All Gratispools prepared before 1956 have 'Exposed'
lables with different prices. Please ignore. Gratispool charges
now as adjoining".

The red envelope
above is currently my most recent, dated 4th May 1960. It has
a Special Note attached requesting the customer to enclose an
additional 6d (2.5p) with their next order to compensate for
the shortfall in their current order due to the recent price
increase of 6d on the developing costs. The Note draws the customer's
attention to the Spring 1960 edition of Photo News for details of the price increase.

These are views, ouitside and
inside, of a Gratispool print envelope for returning colour prints,
whereas all the envelopes above were for black & white prints.

Date information is unknown,
but probably in use from 1963 or 1964.

Prior to that time, Gratispool
were only involved with transpoarency colour film processing
but this envelope refers to colour pictures and 'negative' suggesting
the envelope was for returning colour prints made from colour
negative film.

The new 1960s logo,
looking more modern.
Now the three photographers appear to be using miniature
eye level viewfinder cameras,
rather than large bellows type cameras, as previous.

In 1957 the Gratispool 'Ultra
Rapid' film was credited with a speed of 100ASA in daylight and
25ASA in Tungsten light. This implies the film was more sensitive
to blue than to red light i.e. orthochromatic (not equally sensitive
to all visible wavelengths i.e. not panchromatic).

Immediately left is a carton
containing a 120 size film for distribution within the UK. Extreme
left are 620 and 127 size films.

The red backing
paper tends to confirm the film being orthochromatic, but over
the next few years (see below) it became yellow, suggesting the
film was now more Panchromatic

Below
and right is a Gratispool 'British made' film distributed in
South Africa.

The film itself is date stamped
on its reverse (non-sensitised) side, -9 APR 1962. Notice that
the film leader is marked 'High Speed' despite it having a speed
rating of only 100ASA. The backing paper is equipped with 3 sets
of numbers (see below) permitting 8exp., 12exp. or 16exp. on
the 120 roll film.

The film spool ends (far left)
have stuck-on labels, presumably so that Gratispool could load
their film onto other film manufacturer's spools (though the
spool illustrated here has no identifying marks beneath its labels).

The yellow backing paper on
this later film suggests it was a more panchromatic emulsion
than in 1957 (see red film backing paper in pictures above).

The gummed label (left) was
meant to be stuck around the exposed film to prevent it unwinding.

It shows the processing cost
to be 5/6d for 8 exp. (27.5p), 7/6d for 12 exp. (37.5p) and 9/6d
for 16 exp. (47.5p), presumably made up of 1/6d to develop the
film (7.5p) and then 6d (2.5p) for each postcard sized print.

Linda Preston found a Gratispool
film in her Coronet Gratispool box camera (see below). It was
dated 15th Sept 1964 (see below) on the reverse of the paper
film and 15th Sept 1966 on the start of the backing paper (presumably
the 'use by' date). This film not only shows the processing costs
in 1964 but also shows that the 'classic' Gratispool paper negative
100ASA film was still being issued as a 'Free' replacement as
late as the end of 1964.

Far left: In 1964 the cost
of postcard prints was still 6d each (2.5p), but developing now
cost 2/- (shillings i.e. 10p), an increase from 1/6d in 1962
(see above).

Left: the reverse of the paper
emulsion 'film', dating its manufacture to 15th September 1964.
Also left, the backing paper lead end, showing a date of 15th
September 1966, which is presumably the 'use by' date.

Gratispool Free Film for black
& white pictures from around 1965. A 125ASA panchromatic,
believed to be a conventional celluloid base - no longer paper.
But the carton still says "This film MUST be sent
to Gratispool Ltd, Glasgow, C1, for developing and printing".

If the film was a conventional
celluloid base, then anyone could develop and print the negatives.
But no doubt Gratispool guarded the source of the film so that
best developing time & temperature would be unknown except
to themselves and any other appointed agents. Also, only by returning
the film to Gratispool for processing did the user get another
"Free Film".

These small green envelopes
were supplied by Gratispool, around the mid-1960s, to make for
easier ordering of colour prints, enlargements and duplicate
transparencies. I believe similar envelopes, but coloured yellow,
were supplied for ordering b&w reprints.

"Let Gratispool Colour
Club do the processing." This 'Club' was announced in 1960
and by mid-1961 it was operating from the 'New Colour Laboratories',
Mart Street, Glasgow, C.1.

Using Gratispool's colour services
automatically made you a member of the Colour Club. Gratispool
advertised that their Colour Club offered a really special service,
"new pleasure at less cost." Gratispool "always
endeavours to give customers complete satisfaction with the highest
quality and lower prices too." "Films are on the way
back to you in 36 hours."

These are similar reprint envelopes
to the above, but for black & white negatives. The scans
were sent to me by Keith Long. At the time these envelopes were
in use, 1962-63, Gratispool were still using their paper
negative film and so the ordering instructions make a clear distinction
between Gratispool negatives and Celluloid Negatives.

The enlargement prices on the
reverse of this packet refer to 'Unmounted' (left hand column),
3 from each negative (centre column) and 'Mounted' (presumably
each print, right hand side column).

Another Gratispool envelope
scan from Keith Long.

This combines a postage-paid
envelope with an equipment order form, as its reverse (see left)
has a space to define what item(s) is/are to be sent and whether
a cheque or Postal Order (PO) is enclosed. Also, whether the
purchase is for cash or via a deposit and 38, 52 or 104 weekly
payments.

It's interesting that anyone
looking at the envelope would know that a PO might be inside.
One wonders how many went astray in those less criminal times.

The pictures of the box camera
(left & above) were sent by Linda Preston. She purchased
it from a charity shop. It is clearly labelled 'Gratispool Camera'
in the top centre of the octagonal lens surround, complete with
Gratispool's logo at the bottom, below the lens.

To the right of the lens it
says 'use filter for sunny distant views and seaside bathing
scenes' referring to a built-in green filter for cloudscapes
on black & white film. To the left of the lens is an adjuster
for near & distant focussing. From the condition of the camera,
and the fact that it contained a Gratispool film made in Sept
1964 (use by Sept '66), I suspect it dates from the 1950s.

The Gratispool Camera was advertised
in the summer and autumn editions of Gratispool's 'Photo News'
magazine, sent out free with returned orders. The price of 26s
6d is the equivalent of £1.33p in modern decimal currency.
It included a 'free' Gratispool film, size G20, for taking 8 off
2¼x3¼inch (6x9cm) negatives that would have been
enlarged to postcard size prints.

The 'Handsome Carry Case' cost
7s 9d in this summer 1951 advert, but had been reduced to 7s
6d (38p) by the autumn edition.

"Metals shortage and enormous
rises in raw material prices make it unlikely that manufacture
of these cameras can be continued indefinitely. Get Yours Now
!"

Interestingly, the camera shown
above has a serrated plastic film wind-on knob whereas the 1951
advert shows a smooth metal knob, claimed to be "Kind to
the fingers film winder". Possibly this knob started out
as the smooth design and was later changed (by 1952) to the more
practical serrated design.

In 1951, Gratispool Ltd were
operating out of 207 William Street, Glasgow, C.3 (pre-dates
the St Margaret's Place address).

The Coronet Conway can be seen
at
this website which shows the pictures (left). Gratispool
must have had an agreement to rebrand & sell the Conway as
a 'Gratispool Camera' as a marketing tool.

Coronet made a box camera named
'Conway' between the 1930s and 1955 but with several face-lifts
that changed its appearance. I believe this one is the final
appearance, so the Gratispool Camera might date from the early
to mid 1950s.

This Gratispool camera with
its original box, instructions and a copy of the summer 1952
Photo News (see left) was sold on ebay in late 2010 for £15.

Another Coronet used for
advertising, this time for Outspan oranges. It appeared in Amateur
Photographer for 30th Sept 2006 in 'AP Answers'. In AP it
was identified as a Coronet Ambassador, but Gerry Connolly believes it to be a Coronet
Consul.

These leaflets advertise cine
and still (mostly budget) photographic outfits.They are undated but the leaflet to
the extreme LHS seems earliest, possibly pre-1965, while the
other two most likely date from 1967 or (RHS) early 1968. If
the gentleman on the covers is the same, then there might be
even more years between them. Someone has e-mailed to suggest he was Gratispool's
General Manger, Mr Kempa or Kemper, from the US.

The right hand one has the
illustrations, below, of several Gratispool shops at night.

By c1966 the
name 'Gratispool' had became associated with a small chain of
photographic equipment dealers, as in the picture above, viz.
66 Queen Streeet, Glasgow, 67 High Street, Paisley
and Martineau Way, near Corporation Street, Birmingham.
Other shops followed later; Leeds (Lands Lane), Edinburgh (Home
Street), Maidenhead (King Street) and Reading (Queen Victoria
Street).

Malcolm Drew worked at the
Gratispool shop at 10 Martineau Way, Birmingham, for a short
time in 1967. He took a series of photographs on 1st April 1967
using a Nikon Photomic loaded with Ilford HP4 film. He has montaged
these still pictures of the shop and its staff, together with
a short length of video (taken around the same time), and this
is viewable on YouTube using this
link.

To the left is
a Gratispool booklet with costs etc for colour and panchromatic
b&w film processing. It dates from late 1965.

Gratispool supplied
variously coloured albums rather than a free film under certain
situations. In the 1965 film leaflet illustrated above, a free
album is supplied as a 'special offer' with all orders for 12
or more reprints. Also, a free Gratispool album was supplied
to users of film sizes that were not available as free Gratispool
replacements e.g. Instamatic and Agfa Rapid.

Geoff Welding, a retired commercial
photographer in Cheshire, e-mailed to say "Gratispool must
have also been offering a free album in the mid to late 1950s
instead of a Gratispool film and because of this I bought Ilford
120 size b&w film as I preferred to have the free album.
I think I paid five shillings (25p) for eight post card size
prints - not sure if the return post was extra or included. The
Album in my case was for rectangular postcard sized photographs."

Thanks for sending me one of
your spare albums to illustrate here, Geoff.

This
album records the marriage of 'Janet & Eric' on Saturday
March 19th 1960, 2:30pm, at St Mary's Church, Smethwick.
There are also colour prints of two middle aged ladies (1960)
at their bungalow 'The Haven' at Old Storridge & some b&w
holiday pictures on the Isle of Wight and Southsea.

A young man named Adrian features
in a few of the snaps, aged 14.

If anyone knows of Adrian,
I'd be delighted to pass this album on to him.

Alonside is a
Gratispool album from the 1953 Coronation Year of Queen Elizabeth
II. It contains 8 postcard sized pages, each with corner cut
outs that would allow postcard prints to be easily inserted and
later removed.

The images in the row above
and to the right are by courtesy of Tony Pritchard. The are front
& rear (and side) views taken from early Gratispool 8mm cine
film boxes, as used to return the film for processing after exposure.

Its likely that the 8mm cine
film would have been Dynachrome, meaning that Gratispool's advise
that "Only Gratispool, Glasgow, C.1 can process correctly"
(see carton side view above) was true.

As with their black & white
films, Gratispool seemingly allowed around 2 years between the
date of mailing their colour film and its official expiry date.

The small metal 8mm film cannister
(see left), is sized 54mm diameter by 20mm deep, and was supported
in its return postage box by a piece of stiff card. As received,
the box also contained a gurantee 'certificate' as part of an
exposure guide. The illustrated film, with an expiry date of
January 1970, was accompanied by a note to the effect that the
customer had sent 3d (1.25p) too little with his last order but
Gratispool trusted the customer to pay the extra on his next
order.

A later 8mm film, expiry date
March 1970, contains a new price list where all film & processing
prices have significantly increased "due to devaluation and other increased costs."
The cost of processing an 8mm cine film, incl. a replacement,
increased from 19s/11d (£1) to 22s/9d (£1.14p). Super
8mm cine film was available (from 1968) with an all in charge
of 25s/9d (£1.29p). An Instamatic 126 cartridge (20exp)
& processing cost 18s/9d (94p) and a 35mm 36exp transparency
film cost 24s/6d (£1.23p).

Thanks to an e-mail exchange
with Ian Woodward, I found that Gratispool were offering the
supply and processing of Kodachrome II cine film in parallel
with their own (Dynachrome) cine film by 1967. They offered 2
rolls of 8mm for 33/8d (£1.68p), including the processing
costs of one of the two. By 1969 or 1970 Gratispool offered Super
8 Kodachrome II (the Super 8 amateur cine film format was introduced
by Kodak in April 1965). Super 8 Gratispool (Dynachrome) was
advertised in 1968.

It was unusual for an independent
processor to be entrusted with the processing of Kodachrome,
as Kodak believed it necessary for them to carry out all processing
of their complex (non-substantive) Kodachrome film. Hence, Kodachrome
had previously only been sold inclusive of the processing cost.

The availability of Kodachrome
non-process paid was the result of a Board of Trade Monopolies
Commission report (April 1966) which found that Kodak were maintaining
an artificial monopoly by only selling their film process-paid.
Since Gratispool's US Dynachrome was also non-substantive and
Kodak supplied Gratispool with chemicals to enable Dynachrome
processing in the UK, it was sensible that Gratispool should
process Kodachrome once it was being sold exclusive of its processing
cost. In fact, because of their Dynachrome experience and equipment,
Gratispool were the only organisation able to take advantage
of processing Kodachrome once it became available non-process
paid, so the Monopolies Commission report was largely ineffective.
Its ineffectiveness was further reinforced when it became clear
that many photographers were happier buying their film process
paid and not have to involve themselves in a separate transaction
to get their film processed.

To take advantage of the new
situation, Richard Stead and Ron Houslip arranged with FINA petrol
stations that Kodachrome film be offered at a discount through
their filling stations, as a premium offer. This started well
enough but ran into trouble with Kodak who objected to the fact
that Gratispool were not making it sufficiently clear (in their
view) that processing was by Gratispool and not Kodak. This may
explain why, by around 1970, all Gratispool 8mm film boxes had
the Kodachrome name obliterated with white tape (see illustration,
courtesy of Ian Woodward).

Two Gratispool leaflets donated
by Brian Wilkinson, giving fault finding advice to colour transparency
film users. They suggest what went wrong if results are poor.

The leaflet alongside is possibly
the later, as it contains advice on "Choice of Transparencies
for Printing". The Gratispool 1965 'Colour Photography'
leaflet gives a price of 2/6d (12.5p) per en-print from a colour
transparency, perhaps £1.50p in present value.

Keith Long e-mailed with reminiscence
of the Nescafé promotion for a free colour slide film
that you sent to Gratispool, Glasgow, for processing, together
with about 25/- (£1.25p). In return you received your processed
slides and another film.

Keith remembers that the Nescafé
offer saved you an initial 10/- (50p) outlay to obtain your first
film. Keith thought this film was still 25ASA Dynachrome and
I have since had this confirmed. Later Gratispool changed to
Ferraniacolor reversal film, which was rated at 25ASA in 1965.
It was later manufactured by 3M and was much improved by them,
becoming (officially) 50ASA (CR50), though Gratispool seemingly
advertised it as 64ASA (see below). Films marked "International
Colourslide" were Dynachrome but "Gratispool International",
and "Free Film Service" for slides were all CR-50.

The film speed was 19DIN = 64ASA
(ISO)

Keith learned
of the 'Ferrania connection' when (later) a friend gave him a
"Gratispool International" film which was (by then)
rated at 64ASA. He remembers sending this to Gratispool for processing
and subsequently became aware that the film's edge identifier
was the same as on a 3M Ferrania CR50. By 1970/71, Keith
was processing "Gratispool International" film himself
using CR50 chemistry, satisfied that (by then) Gratispool 35mm
transparency film was indeed Ferrania CR50. The film above was
probably manufactured around 1970 as it has an August 1972 expiry
date.

Although CR50 had an 'official'
speed rating of 50ASA, it was conducive to uprating by modified
processing (which might explain why Gratispool claimed it to
be 64ASA). Its possible Gratispool sold CR50 as 64ASA to obscure
its true identity or to claim an equivalent speed rating to the
post-1963 Ektacolor. It would not have been difficult to achieve
a 64ASA rating from CR50. Amateur Photographer magazine carried
a test of a Ferrania CR50 home processing kit in their 26th June
1968 edition and this included a procedure for uprating CR50
to 100ASA. The kit was priced at 15s/9d (79p), sufficient to
process five 36exp 35mm films or eight 20 exposures.

In 1973 a company called S.G.Stead
of Hemel Hempstead were selling their STEADfast kit with claims
of CR50 being rated to 200ASA "with a quality at least
equal to that given by standard processing." This kit
sold for £1.70, sufficient for six 36exp 35mm films.

A standard 50ASA kit had been
sold by G.Stead since January 1972, priced at £1.30. By
1973 it cost £1.40p (all prices post free).
10metre bulk lengths of Ferrania CR50 were available at £1.75p
(perhaps sufficient for six 36exposure films).

The company name
S.G.Stead is merely an interesting coincidence, there being no
connection with Gratispool's Geoffrey Stead and his family.
S.G.Stead was Gordon Stead a research chemist of 41, Gadebridge
Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Herts (Ref: SLR Camera, news round-up,
Jan'72).

Thanks to Stephen
Gilmore, I've learned that FILM Ferrania is in the process
(mid-2014) of restarting production of analog film in both still
and cinema formats. This will be an E6 process transparency film.
Click on: http://www.filmferrania.it/
to read more about the announcement and to go 'in-depth' on a
very interesting site.